Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1887-05-21
FOOD az SCIENTIFIC METHODS.

The Possible Results to BE Reached by
Chemistry-The Msithuslan specter.
1t Is pleasant to turn from these wars
and ruInors Of wars and preparation for
fighting 10 some Of the contemplated VIC
tories Of peace and science. Thu Sicmens
nre a famous family OF German savarts
who have made important discoveries in
several departments of scientific research.
One of the brothers invented the process
Of storing electricity. The possibilities Of
this invention are incalculabIe. We are
only beginning to difnly realize It's i'm
portance. DR.. Siemen, another brother,
has written a work in which he boldly
states that we are ON the eve Of the pro-
duction Of food by scientific methods
without depending upon plant or animal
reproduction and growth. He says that
chemistry, in conjunction with electro
technics, win some day teach man to
mako the food he now obtains from the
earth by q combination Of the elements
OF which such food consists and which
nature supplies everywhere In the utmost
abundance. In other words, science, he
thinks, may at some future time lay the
Malthusian specter Of overpopulation and
diminishing returns from the soil.
Another suggestion " that the recent
achievements OF science, with the aid Of
mechanical art upon tho field Of ap-
piled electricity, viii restore to labor the
relative independence from capital It en-
5oyed before the command Of machine
power by the latter rendered competition
OF the individual wage worker with mo
chanical production impossible. They will
also restore, he thinks, the greater sxer
else Of individual intelligence In labor, In
place of the mere mechanical performance
compelled by the present organization of
Industrial production. He does not de-
fine his meaning In detail ON this point,
but Il Ia evident, from his other public ex-
prsssions on this favorite subject, that he
expects those results to be accomplished
by the great ehsapening Of mechanical
power, through its general distribution,
among the mass Of workers, by electricity,
% that they can free themselves from the
advantage capital has now over them by
exclusive command Of expensive machine
power.
What q vista this opens up before usi
II the chemist can take the elements Of
the earth about us and produce whole
some and palatable food at a very trifling
cost, how changed will be the whole life
az man on this planeti Poverty will be
abolished The surface Of the globe can
then become one vast city. There would
be no more slaughtering of animals for
food, nor toflsone labor In the wheat and
corn folds. All this may seem visionary;
but suppose an old Grecian or Roman
was told that some dry men would travel
In safety at the ratio OF 90 miles an hour;
Mat immense ships would pillow through
the ocean at 90 miles an hour, regardless
OF wind or waves or, more marvellous
still, that q message could be flashed
under tho ocean and an answer be re-
turned In a few moments. The citizen Of
the ancient world would have said that his
informant was a ~lunatic; that such things
VIII prodigies that man could never hope
30 accomplish The telephone, through
which people can keep mp q conversation
hundreds Of miles apart would have
seemed still more incredible 10 those who
lived In a p~rascientifc ago. The possibili-
ties OF scientific discovery are simply In
calculable. -Demorest's Monthly.